"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Drunkblogging the Debate!

8:00 pm - Jim Lehrer looks about a million years old. And there's no liberal like an old liberal. "Thousands of people offered suggestions for topics... but we only took the liberal-leaning questions."

8:03 pm - Too much pre-birth from Jim Lehrer. But here we go. They both look cool and confident.

8:09 pm - Obama's sad old line of 100,000 new science and math teachers. Obama says we need to lower corporate income tax and boost American energy production.... really? Obama says he wants to reduce the deficit.... really?

8:12 pm - Romney: middle income people being crushed... household income down $4000 is "economy tax," higher gas prices is burying people.

We're 13 minutes in and Romney is crushing this. "All of the increase in natural gas production is despite your actions, Mr. President, not because of it."

8:23 pm - Obama keeps harping on the $5 trillion tax cut for rich people after Romney has said no over and over again. Bush tax cuts caused financial crisis. Clinton approach worked.

This whole thing is silly. The difference between 39.6% and 36% rate is not what ails us in either direction.

***

8:26 pm - Romney: Deficit is a "moral issue." Not moral for my generation to pass onto future generations. "Is the program so crucial that it's worth borrowing money from China to pay for?" Line of the night.

8:28 pm - Obama: When I walked into the oval office I was facing a trillion dollar deficit. Claiming he's a deficit cutter now. Unbelievable bullshit... Romney needs to hammer him hard on this.

Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, lies.

***

Sorry had to take a break there. I don't think Romney hit Obama hard enough on the deficit.

8:35 pm - Lehrer is actually helping Obama. Unbelievable. Obama is getting away with pontificating. Now I don't know what he's talking about... a woman teaching school with 42 kids in her classroom. Obama is literally wandering aimlessly now... family who's got an autistic kid... he's just pulling out things from earlier speeches now.

I'm not quite as boozed-up as the Regular Dad. I think Obamacare kind of gets you into the weeds in debate because the thing is so gosh-darn complicated. Romney absolutely crushed him on the economy. Real quick point: These debates are all about appearance. Look at Romney while O's talking; he has a mild, pleasant smile on his face. Look at Prezidizzle Obizzle while Mitt's talking; his smile is contemptuous and mocking. There is one very simple reason while O's likability ratings are still up. It rhymes with schmirst schlack schresident.

One more thing from the Regular Son: Romney's smile is driving O nuts. It says, "If you worked for me I'd fire your butt." Notice: O can't look Mitt in the eye. Romney talks to Obama; Obama talks to Lehrer, as if he's saying, "Help me, Jim!"

9:11 pm - I don't think Mitt is quite as strong on healthcare. I've just had an epiphany: It makes perfect sense that O would create a bill as hopelessly complex as the ACA. He's a post-moderist-Marxist-progressive. He likes to think government is just smarter now than it used to be.

***

9:18 pm - I want to see what Mark Steyn says about this debate. I can't help thinking he'll think this was all whistling past the graveyard, fiddling while Rome burns, whatever metaphor you want... we're going over a cliff, and we're talking about minutiae.

9:19 pm - Obama's default is always to demagoguery. Romney wants to cut taxes for rich people and pay for them by cutting funds for education.

Obama now talking about the student loan program. Again, what would Mark Steyn say? (I think he would agree with me that we shouldn't have a federal student loan program to begin with. If we didn't have it, young people wouldn't be $1 trillion in debt.)

Romney getting tired? Maybe for a minute there when he went to Solyndra again...

Romney: "I don't just talk about it. I've been there..."

***

If Lehrer is still alive in four years, please please please don't let him moderate a debate.

***

9:25 pm - Premise of Lehrer question about gridlock assumes, as the MSM always does, that government could do more if Republicans could just compromise.

Obama: "I will take ideas from anyone..." Amazing balls on this guy.

***

9:26 pm - Obama pontificating. He's going to run through the time for closing statements....

***

9:27 pm - Obama's closing statement. "Four years ago, we were going through difficult times... my faith and confidence in the American future is undiminished." Anecdotes. "Closing loopholes for companies shipping jobs overseas..." He just keeps saying these things.

Obama talks about the "American people" like they are separate from him, alien.

"I would fight every single day... except when I'm golfing."

***

Romney's closing statement - Two paths leading in very different directions. If the President is re-elected, bad things ensue. If I'm re-elected I'll do the opposite.

Good ending. Lucky he was able to go last.

I'll be very interested to see what the pundits say... I think Romney did just great. I give him an A-.

***

My final word. Romney crossed the threshold of plausibility as a potential President. I think he will see a nice bump out of this debate.

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About Me

I am a husband and a father all the time.
During the day, I am an attorney, specializing in large-scale commercial litigation.
In politics, I am a big "R" Republican and a little "d" democrat, meaning I believe in people more than government.
In sports, I am a lover of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Green Bay Packers, and the Duke Blue Devils.
I was once an English professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, before I grew out of it.
I used to be a Protestant. Then I was a typical over-educated pretentious agnostic. Then I became a semi-Catholic, meaning that my wife is Catholic, my children are Catholic, and I was waiting for lightning to strike. Now I am just a plain old Catholic. Like Chesterton, I wanted to found my own heresy, to be in advance of the age, in advance of the truth. And I found that I was two thousand years behind it.